Phil Mickelson struggles in foursomes, could sit all day Saturday

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – The second-guessing started long before Phil Mickelson hit a shot. Many asked: Why put a struggling, wayward Mickelson in foursomes? Surely four-balls makes more sense for a guy who ranks 12th on the PGA Tour in birdies.

Mickelson teed it up in his 46th Ryder Cup match, the all-time leader for the U.S. and now tied with Nick Faldo for most appearances, alongside Bryson DeChambeau in Friday foursomes and collected his 21st Ryder Cup loss. Mickelson’s overall record moves to 18-21-7.

“I thought if we could shoot around par, it would be a heck of a day,” he said. “We played poorly (on) the front but they shot 4 under. It was just some very impressive golf, and we just didn’t keep up.”

Mickelson and DeChambeau were 4 over on the front side and 7 down to Sergio Garcia and Alex Noren at the turn. Europe ultimately won the lopsided match, 5 and 4.

Given the afternoon winds at Le Golf National, Garcia called their side’s effort spectacular, saying “It was something that I will never forget.”

“We thought that this would be a good format for the tee shots, hitting a bunch of irons off the tees,” Mickelson said. “The challenge was – well we just didn’t play our best. I don’t know what to say. They played phenomenal golf and I’m not trying to take it away from them. We just weren’t at our best either.”

With Mickelson sitting out Saturday morning four-balls, it’s highly possible that he gets benched all day Saturday. Of course, that means he will have little prep heading into what could be a tightly-contested singles showdown.